


Struggles of Sinning

by Anjach



Category: Original Work
Genre: Aftercare, Biting, Bruises, Cause They Live in Avignon, Contracts, Demons, Fights, French Kissing, Friendship, Love/Hate, Lust demon, Multi, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Pool & Billiards, Rough Kissing, Scratching, Seven Deadly Sins, Stress Relief, Succubi & Incubi, Unhealthy Relationships, Work In Progress, Wrath Demon, fuck gender roles
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-04
Updated: 2018-04-02
Packaged: 2019-04-17 07:57:35
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,724
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14184414
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Anjach/pseuds/Anjach
Summary: The daily problems of an overstressed Incubus in Avignon, France. His girlfriend and him fight all the time, he works three jobs because he has to and he just can't catch a break from all the chaos of his side of the world.





	Struggles of Sinning

All it took was a short while of slight movement adjustments and slowing his breathing to a near halt to be able to down the last black ball into its pocket with a carefully calculated shot of the cue. To him, it took forever to do but for others, it happened in the space of seconds and looked like it took no effort at all. Yelling rang out in the casino; a mix of thrilled shrieks and mournful screams assaulting the demon’s pointed ears even after he attempted to shush the crowd and his opponents. During the game, Nathanael Dubois’ slightly feminine fashion had thrown them off and given him the perfect chance to shock them with his ability. Heels, midriff tops and leggings - all in black of course - weren’t that rare around that part of town but his frame was sure to distract.

“Woo! Look at that shit!” Nathanael laughed all the way from his chest, a sly grin curling his lips as he stood back and dropped his pool cue, then shook his fists in the air above his head to celebrate his victory. It was cut short by an unexpected fist to his jawbone. The audience gasped and chattered quietly to each other… well, some cheered.  
After stumbling back with his brows harshly furrowed, he faced his attacker and growled at the sight of one of his opponents - his housemate, girlfriend and an apparently very angry succubus, similar to himself. Her long fluffy blonde locks were messier than usual and there were deep wrinkles in her ‘little black dress’ where she’d been grabbing onto it too tightly. That was Anneke Lindholm for you, always so close to ripping holes in her nice clothes.

“You fucking cheater!” She scowled, matching heels clicking loudly as she stomped towards the shorter male, who just defiantly stared up at her with narrowed ruby eyes. “You always win, Nathan! What kind of dirty tricks did you use this round, huh?”

He stepped forward to meet her in the middle, roughly shoving her into the wood of the table. Her thighs whacked against the edge but she didn’t let herself fall backwards. “Annie dear, you’re just upset ‘cause you suck at playing these stupid games, don’t take it out on me,” He sneered and Anneke roughly flipped them around, throwing the man onto the surface of the table and eliciting murmurs from a now hesitant audience. Could’ve sworn he heard a crack. He deflected an attempted punch to his stomach and landed a harsh kick to the girl’s hip. She yelped and grabbed his head, pushing it firmly back into the table as she clambered up as well for a better angle. He was gonna have a headache after this. Hell, he already had one from the way she’d thrown him down.

“Oh, that is quite enough, you two!” A staff member, red with fury, approached them and sternly pointed towards the exit. “If you’re going to fight, do it outside! You have no business in my establishment tonight anymore.”

Anneke huffed loudly, clearly showing her displeasure at being interrupted as she moved back to give Nathanael room. She straightened out her dress as he stumbled to his feet as well and grabbed her arm firmly, leading her out of the casino with quick little steps. Together their heels made quite the noise but it was drowned out by the crowd returning to their previous chattering volume.  
When the doors slammed shut behind them and the bouncer chuckled, they simultaneously glared at the human and stumbled into the nearest alleyway. 

“God, I hate you,” Anneke mumbled, resuming where they left off and shoving Nathanael back against the wall, pressing closer but staring down at him with a disgusted look. Her lip twitched upward slightly and bared one of her sharper teeth. He grabbed her hips roughly, pulling them flush together. His grip was likely to leave deep bruises. She hissed.

“I hate you too,” Nathanael muttered back and leaned up to connect their lips - Anneke returned the kiss not quite with passion, but with anger and bite. The male grunted, frowning and tightening his hold on her. She groaned an ‘ow’ and shifted to nip at his ear and neck while he ran his sharp black nails down her partly bared shoulder blades, tilting his head out of the way to somewhat willingly give her room to work.

This was how it usually went. That is, they start a fight, beat each other up a bit, make out and then go home without saying another word to each other for a day. To other people their routine would seem strange but it was a common occurrence with that particular couple. Sometimes it even went from starting a fight, finding someone else to sleep with for the evening and then going home and not talking to each other for a day. That wasn’t strange to them either, apparently, but for that particular night they went with the first option.  
After being reprimanded by that same staff member for ‘continuing to defile their property’, they called a taxi to take them home, only speaking to give directions to the tired looking driver. They went their separate ways once they got through the back door, swiftly heading to their own rooms and leaving a puzzled and sputtering third housemate calling after them from the couch.

Nathanael flopped face down onto his large maroon bed, the softness barely helping him avoid the pain in his jaw. Not to mention all the rough bites his partner had given him on his neck and collarbone. “Fuuuck, I hate everything…”

“Even me?” A sweet voice made its way into his ears, and he relaxed immediately, sitting up and smiling warmly at the newcomer. His other housemate, a lightly freckled latina woman with a high and tight ponytail. She wore no illusion; she showed her true form as a succubus by letting her spade-tipped indigo tail show along with wavy horns behind her ears that matched the hue of her tail. She hummed, carrying a small box over to Nathanael and sitting on the edge of the bed while beckoning him closer. “C’mon, you. Show me what you got and tell me what happened.”

With a sigh, he dropped his own glamour to let his tail and horns free as he shuffled over to his best friend. His extra assets were incredibly similar to hers, except his horns didn’t curl quite as much and the spade on his tail was a bit sharper. Still a reminder of how much they had in common. “Alright, Nat. Well, I won at pool because I’m the best-”

“Nathan, seriously.”

“Sorry. Okay, so I won the game of pool and ohh shit- I forgot the money I got from the bets…” He groaned, slumping over after stiffly letting his friend help him pull his shirt off. She whistled at the damage- developing bruises all up his back and on his face, the bites on his front, neck and shoulders. He knew she’d seen worse but he still felt something that seemed like shame burning inside his chest and on the surface of his cheeks.

“Back on track, boy. Tell me what happened so I can help you avoid it next time,” Natalie sighed, sitting behind him and pulling bandages and first aid cream from her little box. She started to apply the cream to some smaller cuts he’d acquired on his back from the brick walls, and he could tell that she’d warmed up her fingertips on purpose just for him. She was the best. 

“I won, and Anneke got mad so she started a fight and we got kicked out of the casino,” He paused, wincing when Natalie was a little too rough with one of the bruises. She mumbled an apology. “Then we made out next to the casino and got kicked ‘out’ again. So taxi’d home and here we are.”

“Mhmm… You both need to learn to control your anger, yes? You are not wrath demons,” She patted his elbow with a hum and moved to wrap a sturdy bandage around his chest and shoulder to protect a slightly nastier graze on his back. She paused to give him an affectionate and gentle hug from behind, her warmth spreading over to him. He sighed at the comfort and held a hand over her arm for a moment, eyes downcast as he thought over things. “Maybe we should practice that breathing exercise later, if you like?” 

“Thanks Natalie, we’ll see,” He softly replied, but the silence that hung in the air for seconds afterwards said that neither of them believed that. The woman sighed, finishing up and pulling away to stand with the remains of her first aid kit. He turned around to watch and warn her. “You should go see if Anneke’s okay. She may have shoved me around a lot but I kicked her pretty hard too.”

“Alright darling, you rest up, ‘kay? I’ll make breakfast in the morning so you don’t have to strain yourself,” Natalie insisted as she walked to the door, waiting for a nod in agreement before she left with a final smile. 

A pause, and the incubus flopped back onto his bed with a loud dramatic sigh then curled up in his overly fluffy blanket and many pillows. He was tired of this, tired of wasting so much of his energy each day on bickering and bar fights and then taking extra contracts the next day to make up for it. And that fight with his girlfriend was tame compared to their usual. Nathanael ran a hand through his messy auburn hair, trying to steady his shaky breathing. Natalie was gone, so no one could see him cry but… He had to stay strong. He had to stay strong, do his fucking job and not go soft like those kids who failed training. Forcing the negative emotions down, he cleared his thoughts as much as possible and turned off the bedside lamp with the flat of his tail, burying his aching cheeks into the pillow so he could pass out as comfortably as he could.

 

Nathanael never dreamed but if he did that night, his dream would probably be about all the things he hated about life. Everything was stress.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for checking this out~ This is a leisure project I'm working on to develop the backstories of some of my characters (Specifically Nathanael, Anneke and Natalie). This isn't actually where they are in current 'canon', but this happened once upon a time.
> 
> This is also a NaNoWriMo Camp project, I suppose.
> 
> If you want to see art of most of the main characters shown here, head on over to https://anjach.deviantart.com/gallery/66013466/Nathanael-Friends


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